Letter to the Editor: U.S.P.S. fiasco continues. Is Odessa next?

I urge your readers once again to contact their members of Congress and demand that Congress fix the problem it created in 2006 for the United States Postal Service.

In 2006, Congress decreed that the USPS must fully fund current and future employees’ pension and health care costs to the tune of $5.5 billion a year. The Republican-dominated Congress required this funding to be done in 10 years to cover the costs for the next 75 years!

No business pays 75 years into the future for its employees’ pension and health benefits. No business pays such costs for employees not even born yet. However, Congress requires this of the USPS.

According to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the USPS has about $44 billion dollars now in this pension and health care cost fund and, with compounding interest around 3%, there is more than enough money set aside today to cover the costs for the next 75 years. Mission accomplished ahead of schedule!

Without this staggering payment of $5.5 billion a year, the USPS would be in the black. However, the USPS is in the red and is seeking help to remedy the situation.

As I mentioned in an earlier letter, without a remedy thousands of small and rural post offices could be closed before this calendar year ends. I have such a list of Washington post offices that are slated for closure. Odessa is not among them, but other small post offices are – Almira, Lind, Wilson Creek, Coulee Dam, Edwall, Elmer City, Harrington, Hartline, Keller, Marlin, Sprague, Springdale, Stratford. The list goes on for three and a half pages.

The Post Office receives no taxpayer money for its operating costs. It earns all its money (including the required $5.5 billion a year) from the sale of stamps.

If Congress decreed today that the USPS no longer had to set aside $5.5 billion a year, the USPS would be operating at a profit and would have enough money to pay retirement and health care costs 75 years into the future. This still seems reasonable to me.

Now is the time to demand once again that Congress fix this problem it has created, election year or not. Otherwise, even Odessa’s post office could be slated next to close. Thank you.

Duane Pitts

Odessa